Pitching the press: a four-step method to build a pitch that wins over journalists
What is the purpose of a pitch in public relations?
A PR pitch is a short, targeted and personalized message sent to journalists, ahead of a press release or alongside it. Its goal is to sum up news, information or expertise in a few lines in order to catch a journalist’s attention and make them want to know more.
In public relations, a pitch generally takes the form of a short email written by a press officer. The press officer selects the most relevant information from the press release and presents it from an angle likely to interest the journalist and their audience. Unlike a press release, which presents all the information in a structured and relatively exhaustive way, a pitch gets straight to the point. It does not try to explain everything, but to spark curiosity and give the journalist a reason to take an interest in the subject.
Building your pitch for press relations
1 - Find the angle
Journalists are overwhelmed with requests. Personalizing your hook is therefore just as important as polishing your press release. A journalist’s role is not to relay products or services, but to illustrate statements and provide insight and explanation. They therefore expect information that fits their publication’s editorial line. In practice, finding the angle for your pitch means taking the media’s point of view rather than the brand’s. Before writing your pitch, ask yourself two questions: would this subject be relevant if you worked for this section? How does this news fit into the editorial line of the targeted outlet?
For example, rather than writing “a startup launches a carpooling app,” a pitch angled for the regional business press would read: “how carpooling is changing the commute in rural areas.” For a youth-oriented outlet, the angle becomes: “the new mobility habits of 18-25-year-olds.”
2 - Adapt your pitch to the target
It does not matter how well angled the pitch is if it is not sent to the right person. Good targeting means knowing the outlet’s editorial line, but also the subjects the journalist has already covered. A business journalist, a lifestyle journalist and a tech journalist do not have the same expectations or the same approach, even when they sometimes cover the same news.
For a fundraising announcement, for instance, a business journalist will want precise figures, the names of the investors and the growth strategy. An HR journalist will be more interested in the impact on hiring or internal organization. Sending the same pitch to both means losing one of them, if not both.
3 - Get to the point
The pitch is a foretaste of the press release. It must be neither promotional nor commercial. Superlatives, marketing jargon and vague wording are to be banned. An effective hook gets straight to the point and answers the 5 Ws used by journalists:
- Who: who is affected by the news?
- What: what is it about?
- Where: where is the event taking place?
- When: on what date?
- Why: what is the cause?
For example, a vague pitch such as “our brand is launching a new environmental initiative, we would be delighted to discuss it with you” provides no usable information. Conversely, a concrete pitch answers the 5 Ws in a single sentence: “A clothing retailer is launching its textile recycling service on Tuesday in ten French cities, a first in the sector.”
4 - Include a call to action
The purpose of the pitch is to pique the journalist’s curiosity so that they ask for more information. To achieve this, word your hook so that it prompts action. For example, offer an interview with a specialist, a link to visit a website or an invitation to an event. These CTAs make your message more concrete.
A pitch with a CTA could be worded as follows: “On the occasion of Fashion Week, [expert’s name] can break down the season’s trends as [job title] at [company]. A 15-minute slot is available this week for a phone interview.”
In short, a pitch must be:
- Clear: free of jargon, understandable in a few seconds
- Angled: driven by a point of view, not by a sales pitch
- Personalized: addressed to a specific journalist, not to a mailing list
- Concrete: illustrated by an example, a figure or a real situation
- Actionable: accompanied by a clear proposal (interview, data, visual)
